


Mnamōn - Rememberer

by CharlotteDaBookworm



Series: Book of Drabbles [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-27 07:14:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14420310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlotteDaBookworm/pseuds/CharlotteDaBookworm
Summary: When Salazar met the boy who would become his brother for the first time in centuries, his weary heart broke a little more.





	Mnamōn - Rememberer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flamethrower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamethrower/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Of a Linear Circle - Part III](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11631114) by [flamethrower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamethrower/pseuds/flamethrower). 



> The Harry Potter Series belongs to JK and Nizar Slytherin belongs to flamethrower

Salazar had never allowed himself to think about what life would be like after Nizar went into the portrait. Well, that wasn't completely true. He had thought about it nearly constantly, had gone over the plans, again and again, to make sure that he knew how everything should go. But if he had ever thought about how his life would change after such, it had always been in the depths of the night and quickly pushed aside in favour of planning what would come next.

 

Because this was necessary. Salazar knew that, he had known that since not long after he had met Nizar - when he had decided to scry on the abomination that was the last of their line.

 

But _sarding hells,_ he had never expected that it would **hurt** so much.

 

Even centuries later, he remembers feeling as though he had lost a vital part of himself. And he remembers feeling surprised, because it had felt as though he had lost him. _(Just like he had lost his parents. Like he had lost Orellana and Brice and Elfric. Like he continued to lose people, over the years - never being able to stop himself from connecting with people, from caring for them, from living as they died)_. Nizar hadn't gone anywhere. Not really. He could still speak to his brother, could still laugh and joke with him, could still argue and debate with him. But he could have done any of that with any portrait. He shouldn't have been surprised, because in all of the ways that mattered he _had_ lost his brother. He couldn't touch him, couldn't hug him or duel with him or take meals with him or drink with him. Nizar sat there, his portrait unchanging even as they all grew old and died.

 

That realisation, that sense of loss, had only confirmed a decision that he had made years ago. He had always planned to find some way of being there for Nizar, had never wanted to leave him to fight the monster that had haunted his childhood on his own, but meeting Nizar had been one of the best things to happen to him. He had always known that but had never quite understood that until his brother was gone.

 

So Salazar had decided to find a way to fight by his brother's side. No matter what it took.

 

_(He had known, even as he was considering it, that Nizar would never have wanted him to make a deal with an aspect. That he had never expected him to help him in this war - not when Nizar saw Salazar, saw all of them, as having done so much for him already._

_He had known, even as he was making it, that Nizar would probably punch him for doing it._

_But he had known, always, that he would never be able to bring himself to regret it. No matter what he lived through, no matter what he saw, no matter what he suffered or lost, that he would never regret succeeding. Because Nizar had changed his life for the better, and he would do anything to be able to touch - hug- his little brother at least once more before his death)_

 

\--------------------------------------------------------

 

When Salazar met the boy who would become his brother for the first time in centuries, his weary heart broke a little more.

 

Because this worn, beaten young man with shadows crowding out the life in his eyes is so different from the confident, happy teacher that Nizar had grown into. And while he had never forgotten his first meeting with his brother - while he could never forget those first years together as Nizar came into himself - both time and decades of happy memories together had dulled his recollection of the war-torn almost-child in front of him.

 

_(He could see Nizar in Harry Potter, of_ course _he could, but there was something brittle about him that he had hardly seen in Nizar since those early years)_

 

Salazar had purposely taken a step back from the British Wizarding World after Halloween of '81. He had still been involved in his underground, but he had never allowed himself more than a glimpse of his younger brother. Sal had a mastery in Mind Magic and he knew himself well enough, he knew enough about _Nizar's childhood_ , to know that he wouldn't have been able to keep himself from interfering.

 

_(Because Nizar was both his brother and a child. Children should be protected and taught and Nizar was his_ brother _even if he didn't know him yet. He could never stand to see him hurt, and to see this child so obviously grieving - all he had ever wanted was for him to be_ happy _)_

 

So he had stayed away. Because time was a circle and this had already happened - Nizar had been sent to them and had told them of his childhood and so that was how time went - so Sal couldn't meddle. _Wouldn't_ meddle, no matter how much he wanted to because Nizar was his brother and he couldn't lose him.

 

But even now it tempted him. Here was Nizar, looking exactly as he did when they had first met. Here was Nizar, still so young and in need of help. Here was Nizar, closer than he had been in nearly a thousand years and Salazar couldn't _do_ anything. This Nizar didn't know him, didn't trust him, and he had always known that this would be difficult but.

 

_(All he wants to do is wrap his brother in a hug and never let go)_

 

But he will do what he has to do - he'll close the circle and send this version of Nizar back.

_(He'll see his brother again soon enough)_

**Author's Note:**

> This is for flamethrower, whose HP series Of A Linear Circle inspired this and is absolutely amazing. I was meant to be writing a source criticism on the Gortyn Law code, specifically the great code, but when I was doing the research I found out that it's mostly property and family law - especially adoption. Because I was procrastinating and reading fic instead of writing the assignment, my brain automatically jumped to this and I decided to write it. Also, I'm not certain on the title but I pulled it out of the textbook I was reading at the time so. Anyway. Hope you like it.


End file.
